Nor a puppy-mill IFR training program which forbids instrument training flights in actual IMC...for safety reasons

A wet commercial is like a 16 year old with a new driver's license...you don't give him a job driving a schoolbus or a tractor trailer, you give him a beater with a 4-banger and airbags.

As someone who flew with MAPD grad captains, I can definitely see the point of the 1500 rule.

It used to take 1500-2500 with some turbine time to even get considered by a regional. This rule is just a reaction to some sectors of the industry exercising poor judgement in hiring practices.

As others have said, 1500 is no big deal, two years as a CFI and you'll have some fun too.

 

Flight training expenses have gone up significantly and many of those old 135 jobs are almost impossible to find now, so it's not a fair comparison to bring up the old de facto mins.

The only reliable time building job these days is flight instructing, but you need more people on the bottom starting their training than at the top teaching for it to work. It's essentially a pyramid scheme, and I'm not sure we can sustain it. A big reason we've been able to so far is foreign students. As someone else pointed out, they'll start flying a widebody at 250 hours while you're still slaving away in a 172 with no air conditioning in the summer for minimum wage. To add insult to injury, we're training our future competition.

 

So your captains don't have to flight instruct as much when new guys are flying their first jet.

 

Chances are you will make more instructing in a 172 than you will at the regionals. Just saying...

 

Made about ~$14,750 as an instructor in 2013. Given, it was a lower paying school, but that was working 60-70 hour weeks, usually 6-7 days a week. The monthly minimum at my regional is about my best month's paycheck instructing.

 

Dude, you were at the wrong school. I was making $30,000 as an instructor with weekends off. Now I'm living the dream flying a jet making $20,000 and home 11 days out of the month.

 

How did you live on 14k? Seriously?

 

I'm a fan of the "1500 hour rule' because it raises the bar to applicants, thus narrowing the field of available pilots and making us a more valuable commodity. It's interesting that doctors have been mentioned, since the AMA has been doing this for years by controlling medical school admissions.

As for the Colgan tragedy, some of you are talking like the CA went straight from a Seminole to the left seat of a Q400. He had airline experience as both a Captain and First Officer. The problem was fatigue among both pilots due to improper commuting which led to poor judgement and mistakes by BOTH of them. Yes, more experience may have helped, but when people commute on a redeye, sleep in crew lounges, then fly all day, it doesn't matter how many hours you have, you're going to screw up. So the "1500 hour rule" IMO adds little to safety, it was a convenient excuse to raise the bar.

As a side note, we have had many 1500 hour applicants recently struggling through training where 300 hour ERAU wonders used to make it through with no problems. Hours aren't everything.

 

I agree, it was pretty bad. At the time it was the only school within a few miles of where I lived and I couldn't afford a car, so I biked there. By the time I managed to get a car, I was most of the way to hiring mins at a regional and it didn't seem worth it to jump ship.

I see a lot of friends with smartphones, nice cars or even new ones, paying for their own apartment, etc. Many are taking on lots of debt though. I got a dumb phone that does texts and phone calls, a 10-year-old car that looks cruddy but has been reliable, and I share a place with several other guys for a few hundred a month. I really try not to spend money on frivolous things; my one vice is going out to the movie theater and getting a big tub of popcorn. You gotta live a little, right?

There's a very small trickle of income on the side from a Youtube channel I have (~$150 a year), and I'm fortunate to have parents who will help me out if I'm ever in a crunch. But mostly, just try to be frugal and live within your means as much as possible. The goal is to keep that up a few more years as pay slowly increases...

 

Why yes I do. Why yes. I am too.